Category: Education

Legislation that clarifies the role of the state’s Education Achievement Authority (EAA) should not be shelved just because it’s a vehicle for the expansion of charter schools, as critics claim. However, parents should be concerned that there’s little in the EAA experiment to suggest that consolidating failing schools into one state-sponsored district is a paradigm […]

I covered the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) as a reporter for WWJ radio in the mid-1970s. In the ensuing years I watched as the district was decentralized, recentralized and managed by various boards and appointed managers, some wielding extraordinary powers. I have yet to see significant academic improvement, increased community involvement or abatement in the […]

Proposition S on the November 6 general election ballot in Detroit asks for voter approval of an 10-year, 18-mill, $80 million reauthorization, which is approximately 21-percent of the annual operating budget for Detroit Public Schools. I’m not convinced that the education delivery system will show dramatic improvement with its passage. But I have no doubt […]

There’s general consensus that failing Detroit Public Schools need restructuring. It’s fairly unanimous that site-based management would make it easier for stakeholders to have a voice in school decisions. But there isn’t much excitement in Emergency Manager Roy Roberts’ DPS 2012-13 Action Plan that will allow 10 high schools to govern themselves this fall. It’s […]

Truancy sweeps between the Wayne County sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices, the Michigan State Police, the United States Attorney’s Office and the Detroit police, operate on the premise of keeping kids safe and reducing youth crime. At best, this mobilization is a waste of valuable resources. Everyone agrees that the development of healthy adolescents should be […]

The ritual in which Detroit Public Schools officials engage in an all-out student roundup at the beginning of the school year, and then check back periodically to see if students continue to show up the entire semester, isn’t working very well. The momentum and attendance generated in September apparently aren’t sustained, and persistent absenteeism is […]

The Michigan Legislature is toying with the idea of allowing students to enroll in schools outside of the districts where they live. It is a utopian concept rife with the possibility of unintended consequences. Gov. Rick Snyder and state lawmakers should resist forcing the failures of core cities on the suburbs. The educational choice issue […]

A threat by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to separate the city of Detroit some $50 million in Head Start grant money follows allegations of misspending, missing equipment and “chronic under enrollment” among other deficiencies. While I don’t see the downside, city officials are frantically scrambling to repair the damage and […]

The excitement leading up to Gov. Rick Snyder and Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts’ announcement of a sweeping redesign of the district’s worst schools was short-lived. Out of it came disappointing news that parents and students will be subjected to another grandiose reform plan propped up by a bailout of the cash-strapped […]

The Michigan House-approved legislation making it harder to achieve tenure is based on established principals of accountability and service. More than making it easier to get rid of ineffective teachers easier, it liberates them from restrictive union dictates and puts them on a path to free agency. In a nutshelll, the package of bills is […]